Gifts for Design Graduate Students and Professors

($65-70) This is the premiere digital stylus, designed specifically for the iPad Air, iPad Mini, and the iPad 3 and 4. It links to the iPad device using Bluetooth. You can rest your hand on the screen, blend lines, erase, and basically forget that you are drawing on a tablet. It comes in two colors: walnut and graphite.

($15) This book argues for product design that incorporates cognitive psychology, focusing on the needs of the user. This is a classic text that every designer needs to read. This is a new, recently updated edition, with new examples about design and product development.

($20) Helvetica is a feature-length documentary film about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture. Interviewees include some of the most important names in graphic design. Entertaining, educating, enlightening film that makes you reconsider the visual world around you. It’s a perfect gift for a student learning about design, or for a professor, who could show it in a class.

($10) Designers–whether graduate students or professors–are often inspired by designed products. A nice notebook and pen can be better for ideas, and so can creative sticky notes. These triangle sticky notes come in six neon colors.

($20) This looks at the most important ideas that influenced graphic design. It covers everything from technical to stylistic to the methods of graphic design. This is an engaging book that a graduate student or professor is sure to enjoy.

($15-20) 160 pages of the best infographics created during 2014. From serious to playful, these infographics are enlightening, not only in regards to their content, but also in their form and design. This up-to-date collection will be perfect for the design graduate student or professor on your list.